Tourism development in Armenia hobbled by shortage of specialists

YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. Robert Minasyan, the head of the Armenian Tourism Institute, a branch of the Russian International Tourism Academy, speaking Friday at a news conference dedicated to the World Tourism Day, pointed out the shortage of specialists as one of the factors hobbling development of tourism in Armenia.

“Today the tourism area is badly in need of specialists with new approaches to enhancement of attractiveness of a tourism product that is up to the present tourist demand,” he said adding that especially provinces are in want of such specialists.

Lia Bakhshinyan, the head of the Guild of Armenian Guides, who spoke at the same news conference, said that tourists travel to Armenia to have an active rest and see sites of historic and culture legacy.

Therefore it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for long tourist routes, she said.

“First of all, inexpensive three- or four-star hotels with appropriate services should be opened in provinces for accommodating tourists,” she said. “Besides, very often tourists in Armenia have to do without toilets while traveling, since there are no toilets along tourist routs.”

Bakhshinyan also singled out bad roads among factors hampering development of tourism in Armenia.

However, in conclusion, the experts said that it would be wrong to omit some achievement reached in development of tourist infrastructures and the country’s tourist capacity.

In June, Armenia ranked fifth among top 10 countries to travel to in 2013, according to Globe Sports portal.

For compiling this rating, a group of professional travelers have captured what’s happening on the travel scene focusing on destinations they think will be “hot - or at least should be.”

Armenia was rated within a category of “adventurous places for those who are going above and beyond, seeking out the best travel.”

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the country hosted 128,237 tourists in Jan-March 2013 – 22.9% year-on-year growth.

Some 137,128 people have departed from Armenia for the first three months of this year for tourist purposes – 14.2% year-on-year growth. As many as 843,330 tourists visited Armenia in 2012.